JOHANNESBURG - Former South African Reserve Bank governer Tito Mboweni believes South Africa has forgotten its vision of non-racialism.

Speaking at a debate on healing the wounds of the past at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg on Thursday night, Mboweni said the Employment Equity Act is not meant to marginalize white people.

The country's employment equity and affirmative action policies have been hotly debated in public after South African Airways and Woolworths placed adverts for jobs which were only open to certain races groups.

Mboweni said the vision of a non-racialist society has been lost in the workplace.

"Now most of the black managers appointed to positions in companies or the public sector see it as their responsibility to exclude white applicants for jobs; that is not what [the policies] we intended it to be. If you continue on that path South Africa you're dream won't only be deferred - it will be destroyed."